When milling cutter with small cutting diameters are designed with cap screw style (A-style) shell mill mountings, a thin, weak cross-sectional area 106 usually occurs in a cutter body 100 between the insert pockets (and chip gashes) 102 and the counter bore 104 for the locking screw, as shown in FIG. 5. Typically, the thin cross-sectional area 106 exhibits high stresses during a machining operation, which can lead to cracking and premature tool failure. It would be desirable to eliminate the thin, weak cross-sectional area that exists in conventional designs.